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I’m looking to expand the listing of midwestern indie bookstores, but I need some help. If you know of an indie bookstore in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, or Wisconsin, please leave a comment with a link to their website so I can get all the details and add them to the list. Thanks!

The list of midwestern book bloggers has been updated as of today.

– Jenna

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Hi everyone! Brittany and Charleen are both pretty busy these days so they handed MBBs over to me last month. I’ve been updating as needed and I have some plans for the site that I’ll be working on over the coming months. Don’t worry, I won’t be making any drastic changes.

If you have any ideas for the site, don’t hesitate to contact me. You can leave a comment, contact me on Twitter, or find me on my own blog at Rather Be Reading YA.

– Jenna

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Hey, Midwesterners! Just wanted to fill you in on a few changes here at MBBs. You may have noticed a little more activity in the past couple days. Amanda has handed the reins over to Charleen @ Cheap Thrills and Brittany @ The Book Addict’s Guide (that’s me) and we will be the new main contacts at MBBs. Amanda is still staying on as the REC for the Twin Cities so don’t worry — you’ll still see her around! Again, a big thanks to Amanda and Jacinda for starting Midwestern Book Bloggers and for letting hop on board in a more prominent role!

FIRST: We’re not making any BIG changes to MBBs because Amanda and Jacinda of course did a great job of setting it up and organizing everything! I’ve contacted the RECs who originally volunteered when MBBs started and we’ve verified who is still staying on. If you or any other Midwestern book blogger is interested in becoming a Regional Event Coordinator, head on over to the About page, check out what the duties are, and send us an email! We still have quite a few regions that need reps!

SECOND: Things like the Blogger listing page and the Events page haven’t change, but I was thinking of expanding the events page to more than just local events. I know some of you guys don’t live near major cities so that makes it hard to attend signings and really get involved with MBBs. I was hoping to expand events to extend to blogger-hosted events as well such as read alongs, giveaways, or any major blog events that you’re hosting. I thought it would be nice to help highlight those really special events & posts on your blog and have a spot where the community can find them. This would not be a page for linking up to regular reviews/features/memes, etc — Just to help get the word out about special events. If you guys like this idea, I’ll start working on a form for you to be able to fill out and submit with your blog event’s info so let me know if that’s something you’d be interested in!

Okay, I think that will do it for now! Again, we haven’t made and big changes but if there’s something you’d like to see from MBBs, please let us know! We’d love for this to be a community and a way for us to interact with each other & help each other out.

Thanks!
Brittany

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If you have signed up to receive the MBBs newsletter, the following information should already be in your inbox. I am reposting the information here for those who may not be subscribed to our newsletter.

Newsletter Purpose

Our goals for future newsletters are the following:

To provide a comprehensive list of bookish events in the Midwest. The newsletter will be sent out once a month on the first and will include events for that month, plus two weeks of the next month.

To link to event (signings, festivals, etc.) recaps posted by Midwestern bloggers. If you missed an event or a favorite author didn’t quite make it your way, linking up recaps is a great way to experience some of the fun anyway. And BONUS: if it’s your recap, it’s promotion for your blog. (If you wrote or will write a recap for the month of October, we’ve got a form you can use to submit your link.)

If there is anything else you would like to see in our newsletter, please let us know by sending an email to midwesternbookbloggers@gmail.com. At some point in the future, we may also consider featuring bloggers or independent bookstores.

I am hoping that the first newsletter will go out November 1st.

Planned Changes

In an effort to streamline the process of collecting and disseminating event information, we have decided to combine the Events Coordinator and State Delegate positions into eight Regional Events Coordinator positions. The Regional Events Coordinators (REC) will be in charge of collecting event information and forwarding it on to the person in charge of the newsletter (at the moment, I am that person). If you know of an event in your area, you should contact your REC. Their contact information (or their preferred method of contact) will be placed on our website on the About page.

There are a few reasons for this change. One, there are too many events for one person to keep track of. Two, the previous set-up would have involved too many people and would have likely resulted in more confusion than necessary. And finally, by separating the Midwest into regions that are centered around metropolitan areas, we hope that you can develop and establish relationships with bloggers in your area—people you are likely to see at events.

Call for Help

Because of the changes we made with Events Coordinators, we have a few spots that we need to fill. And if you were interested in becoming a State Delegate, you might consider becoming a REC, as the responsibilities are virtually the same. The following is a list of our proposed regions. The regions are not set in stone (alas, my knowledge of the regions extends only so far). If you have suggestions about how to structure the regions or if you are interested in becoming a REC, please let us know. We already have RECs for Chicago and Ohio (listed in brackets).

Chicago [Sarah/The Brazen Bookworm]

Indiana—excludes Chicago suburbs

Kansas City—also includes events in Kansas and Nebraska

Michigan

Ohio [Jenny/Supernatural Snark]

St. Louis–also includes events in Missouri (minus KC) and part of Illinois

Twin Cities—also includes events in greater Minnesota, Iowa, and the Dakotas

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The time has come for our official site launch! I know, I know, it has been a long time coming. But we are here, and we are READY.

A note about the positions for Events Coordinator, Bookstore Promoter, and State Delegates: we haven’t forgotten about you. We have a list of people who originally said they were interested in one (or more) of these positions. Jacinda and I decided to give it a bit more time in case the launching of the site creates more interest. We would like to give everyone a chance. Additionally, we are still in need of people willing to be State Delegates from the following states: Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. If you are interested in any of these positions, please get in touch with us. You can reach us by email (found in the sidebar), through our get listed Google form, or by leaving a comment on this page.

Below is an explanation of what you will find on our site.

Sidebar

Use the sidebar to connect with the MBBs! You can find links to our Twitter account, our email address, and our RSS feed. You can also sign up for our newsletter, which we will send out to keep you updated on important information and monthly events in the area. And, if you’re still new to this site and haven’t been listed yet, there is a button that will take you to the Google form to get yourself signed up. If you don’t remember if you signed up or not, visit the Bloggers page. All bloggers who signed up pre-launch are listed.

Jacinda and I felt that it was important to support our local Indie bookstores. As such, we have begun to compile a list of Indies. If you know of a bookstore to add, please let us know! Our Bookstore Promoter is in charge of this page. Eventually, we hope to feature some of these bookstores on our blog.

The blog and our newsletter will be used to communicate with fellow Midwestern book bloggers about various events and other special information. We will use the newsletter primarily for keeping everyone up to date on what is coming up, and the blog will be for recapping events (such as book signings). Links to the blog’s RSS feed and to subscribe to our newsletter are in the sidebar.